THE MOOSE DEER. 51 
meval forest, in the gray and silvery moonlight, or in the 
purple dawn of autumnal morning, the fierce and noisy 
jousting of two of these great forest champions. 
There is another mode of pursuing these great deer 
during the summer season, when they wade into the 
deep waters to eschew the myriads of flies, which is 
spoken of with rapture by those who have enjoyed it— 
that is, to make the ‘wilderness your home, your hemlock- 
bed and bark-roofed camp your dwelling-place, and with 
canoe, and rod, and rifle, stealthily to paddle along the 
winding water-courses, keeping as much as possible 
within the shadows of the shore, and under the protec- 
tion of the overhanging branches, when you can often 
teal up within easy gun-shot and bring them down with 
one well-directed bullet. The liberty, the independence, 
the rapturous excitement of this sort of life is entirely 
indescribable; the delight with which you sleep in the 
free, fresh, odoriferous air of the forest, with your soft, 
elastic hemlock-bed—sure preventive of all rheumatic 
pains—beneath you, and the blue vault, with all its 
diamond stars above you; the zest with which you 
enjoy the meal of fresh trout from the river, or sweet 
digestible wild meat from the woods, the fruits of your 
own prowess; the health, the-strength, the energy of 
mind and body which you earn by your rugged toil, and 
rude though savory food; the perfect sense of hardihood 
and self-reliance, which you derive from thus owing 
every thing that ministers to your enjoyment, to your 
